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Ukraine is turning warfare into a sci-fi battle of machines - and the West has work to do

By Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor

Ukrainians say they are in danger of losing the drone arms race with Russia and need more help.

And that is worrying not just for Ukraine, because the drone is becoming the likely weapon of choice in other future conflicts.

Sky News has been given exclusive access to a Ukrainian drone factory to watch its start up ingenuity at work.

Ukrainians have turned the drone into their most effective weapon against the invaders. But they are now, we are told, losing the upper hand in the skies over Ukraine.

General Cherry Drones was started by volunteers at the beginning of the war, making 100 a month, but is now producing 1,000 times that. The company's Andriy Lavrenovych said it is never enough.

"The Russians have a lot of troops, a lot of vehicles and our soldiers every day tell us we need more, we need more weapons, we need better, we need faster, we need higher."

The comments echo the words of Ukraine's leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told reporters this week "the Russians have increased the number of drones, while due to a lack of funding, we have not yet been able to scale up".